Take Advantage of the Stimulus Package

Are you looking for a job, or afraid you might lose the one you have? President Obama thinks he can help you.

Under President Obama’s leadership, the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act passed the House of Representatives on January 28th, 2009. This ‘stimulus package’ is projected to create between three and four million new jobs. Three-quarters of these jobs are expected to arrive within the first 18 months of the act being signed into law.

The stimulus package arrives at a time when America desperately needs job creation: unemployment recently reached a fifteen-year high, and is currently at over 7.2 percent.

Stimulus Package: What’s Under the Hood?

First (and foremost): The stimulus package calls for the federal government to invest $69 billion in “shovel-ready” projects – initiatives that aim to create jobs as quickly as possible. Construction, transportation, and renewable energy are safe bets for job fields that will be the first to implement rapid job creation and hiring strategies.

Second: The stimulus package will invest heavily in science and technology research, improvements to U.S. public health and education systems, and will add much needed bulk to government-backed grant and scholarship programs.

Third: Roughly $100 billion will be invested in job training programs, benefits for the unemployed, lowering the cost of food, and providing basic health care services.

Where the Jobs Are

This guide will help you understand how the federal government will be spending the ~$700 billion dollars budgeted under the recently proposed stimulus package.

With 11 million unemployed Americans, and millions fearing they might lose their jobs, many are arguing that Washington will be cutting jobs. However, economists claim that a strong federal work force will be the key to economic recovery.

Only one employer will continue to fill hundreds of thousands of high-paying, secure, and dynamic jobs no matter how bad the economy gets. This employer is the federal government, which will annually hire more than 200,000 new employees throughout the U.S. – including tens of thousands of interns and recent graduates.

If you want to start a federal career, here are seven ways to find federal openings.

Many first-time federal job seekers do not realize that there is more than one way to build a federal resume. Kathryn Troutman, GovCentral’s resume expert, strongly recommends posting your resume at several key websites – not only USAJOBS.gov.

Putting a little extra effort into your resume can make all the difference in the world. Leverage all you’ve got in order to get hired.